Retrato do autor
9+ Works 108 Membros 2 Críticas

About the Author

Simon Tormey is Professor of Politics in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney.

Obras por Simon Tormey

Associated Works

Confronting Tyranny: Ancient Lessons for Global Politics (2005) — Contribuidor — 13 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

There is no Common Knowledge data for this author yet. You can help.

Membros

Críticas

This book won't please many people: it is anti-Capitalism but believes the old, political fight is dead. This will alienate both ends of the political spectrum. It doesn't mean that it is wrong, just unpopular.

Sometimes we need that bitter pill. We need to adjust to a world in which the rise of the working man is old fashioned rhetoric and this book point a way: for that, I think it a well worth while read.
 
Assinalado
the.ken.petersen | Jul 2, 2021 |
This book presents and discusses five models of "totalitarianism" in 20th century political theory. The concept does not have the same meaning in each model. By analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of these five approaches in light of the history of dictatorhip, the author tries to stake out the middle ground and delineate requirements for parsimonious descriptions of "totalitarian" systems. In other words, he does not develop his own description of totalitarianism, he merely discusses those of others.

As far as the utility of the five models is concerned, I would rank Hannah Arendt first, Friedrich and Brzezinksi second and Vaclav Havel third. All three are very interesting. Friedrich Hayek comes in a distant fourth because his intention (in Road to Serfdom) was not to describe totalitarian systems. The fifth author is Herbert Marcuse, but I would place him 105th because there must be hundreds of authors who have analyzed dictatorships from a better vantage point than his. Marcuse should not have been included in this work just because he happens to misuse the word "totalitarianism" in his bizarre description of American society.

The author provides a good presentation of each theorist's work and weighs their strengths and weaknesses fairly. This book was written in 1995 and is now becoming a bit outdated. For example, the author of this book was clearly unaware of present-day totalitarian rule in North Korea.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
thcson | Oct 14, 2015 |

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Estatísticas

Obras
9
Also by
1
Membros
108
Popularidade
#179,297
Avaliação
½ 3.4
Críticas
2
ISBN
26
Línguas
3

Tabelas & Gráficos